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Groups: Tenant to tenant migration

Brass Contributor

After a merge we are in the process of moving as much content as possible from one tenant to another.

The process a moving a unified group looks easy.

  1. Evaluate which groups should be migrated (and which groups should be abandoned)
  2. Create the corresponding group in the new tenant
  3. Use a migration tool to copy the content between mailboxes
  4. Use a migration tool to copy the SharePoint content between tenants.

There are a few things that are not so easy however:

Planner migration (which I suspect will be a manual process)

Connector migration which will absolutely be a manual process

I'm still investigating OneNote migration options.

 

Any thoughts, tips and pointers will be appriciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

46 Replies

"the process of moving a unified group looks easy"...

 

That's some statement, especially because no OOTB tools are available to do the work.

 

The components you might have to deal with are as you listed, unless you use Teams, in which case you have chats etc. to move too. Planner and Teams share the same characteristics in that they store "their" data (as opposed to Files and plan comments) in data services outside EXO and SPO. You might be able to extract this data with the Microsoft Graph API.

 

SharePoint is easy enough because you are moving documents and files around - but be aware that metadata might be lost if you use file-level movement utilities. In other words, the devil is in the detail.

 

Extracting group conversations is, I think, possible with the Graph API too. Perhaps the AvePoint DocAve backup could help here as it now supports backup and restore of group conversations.

 

So getting at the data is possible. The issue might be stitching everything back together so that users see the same Groups as they had in the source and that all of the data belonging to those groups is in place and available, conversations are composed of the correct items, files are in the right libraries and have the right permissions (both for the group and any specific sharing), and so on.

 

Because no OOTB tools are available to do all of this, you are on your own. Good luck, fair sailing, and do let us know when you complete the task.

Well, Teams are a big problem right now, Planner is another biggie. I know that there are ways of using Microsoft Graph API to get all that data, I am unsure if I am also able to put that same information into the new tenant. But that is a bit academic since I'm not a developer. Luckily the use of Teams and planner is not wide spread in our old tenant.

 

Isn't group conversations really just a mailbox? as opposed to Teams conversation which is I-Don't-Know-What?

And Files is just a sharepoint site/DocLib?

We thought we just needed to recreate the target groups, use a mail migration tool like MigWiz or BitTitan to move the contents of the mailboxes.

Use Sharegate or another tool to migrate the sites/doclibs.. 

The notebook migration should be relativiely easy too, even if manual. Just move the sections between the notebooks using OneNote.

 

We are a relatively small company with only about 350 users so even if it wont be done in a day it's not an overly complicated process.. Unless I'm missing something?

Planner and teams are, like I said, a different story.

Im not saying that it is a fast process, but not an overly complicated one.  Unless

 

best response confirmed by Mats Warnolf (Brass Contributor)
Solution

Groups use special forms of mailboxes that not all migration tools even reveal let alone access... That is my warning.

 

Just as an example, try using the Get-Mailbox cmdlet to list group mailboxes. They don't exist. You have to use Get-UnifiedGroup. But you can feed a group mailbox id into Get-MailboxStatistics... So it's inconsistent, hence the warning.

That is good information. Thank you for that!

I can absolutely confirm this as a problem. Our migration tool of choice cannot get to the mailboxes.


@TonyRedmond wrote:

Groups use special forms of mailboxes that not all migration tools even reveal let alone access... That is my warning.

 

Just as an example, try using the Get-Mailbox cmdlet to list group mailboxes. They don't exist. You have to use Get-UnifiedGroup. But you can feed a group mailbox id into Get-MailboxStatistics... So it's inconsistent, hence the warning.


 

Hi @Mats Warnolf if I understood correctly you want to do T2T 365 groups to groups? And of course both the document content and and the mailbox (conversations) content. Correct?

I don't know what's your tool of choice but MigrationWiz can help you with that. I work for Bittitan so let me know if you want more info. I can send you some migration guides.

The fact that you can't get into the mailbox using the Get-Mailbox is not relevant to us and the API MigrationWiz uses.

I'd love to know more!

 

Great. I am glad I can help. Do you want to put here the migration guides for both components or do you want to ping me directly? Up to you.

 

Then if you want you can go ahead and do some testing (I can get you a license to test), and if you like it I can pass it along to someone less technical than me that can help you on the licensing.

 

Also and to be clear, the Office 365 groups will have the SP library and the mailbox component, so listing them with a Get-Mailbox would never be an option in EXO.

HI Antonio

 

we are looking to do this and i would be really interested in how this worked. could you kindly share here?

thanks in advance,

 

Patience

Hi,

 

Yes I can. MigrationWiz will try and migrate most of the content of an Office 365 groups. We will tackle the mailbox portion and the SharePoint portion, separately. Please see the guides below and let me know if you have questions:

https://community.bittitan.com/kb/Pages/Office%20365%20Group%20to%20Office%20365%20Group%20Mailbox%2...

https://community.bittitan.com/kb/Pages/Office%20365%20Group%20to%20Office%20365%20Group%20Document%...

 

Unfortunately migrating content from the OneNote within a group is something that is outside of our reach. Anything else (I don't think I am missing something) can be migrated with the process described above. let me know if you have questions.

Hi Mats, 

 

A few migration tool are able to help you.  One of them is the Cloudiway migration platform available online with an audit tool for your evaluation. You can also combine the SharePoint feature to migrate the content between two tenants.  You will find more information on the web site https://cloudiway.com/solutions/google-groups-to-office-365-groups-migration 

 

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. 

Just a quick note: OneNote is part of SharePoint, so it should move with the SharePoint content migration.

Hi.

 

I just create a q like this, can someone help me?

This is my scenario:

I have 100 mailbox in Office365 (online) and I want to move them to another Office365 (online). I want to keep my current email (Javier@source.com) and my new email (Javier@target.com). 
How can I do it?. I´m trying do it with Admin Office365 portal like "migratin from Online" but I´m not sure. 
By other hand, i have to give permission to my admin usr (the user that has permissons to migrate) in the endpoint. How can I do it?

Hi Javier,

 

Depending on your requirements, you will need an external migration tool to achieve this. I can propose you to check Cloudiway migration platform. This tool uses impersonation rights so you don't have to manage extra roles and permissions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7DfRJPeZ3s 

How to migrate from one Office 365 tenant to another Office 365 tenant using Cloudiway platform Getting Started with Cloudiway migration tools! This tutorial helps you migrate to Office 365 quickly, securely and easily with no data loss or business disruption.

Hi Javier,

 

you can use the best T2T migration tool in the market. Check here for more information: https://help.bittitan.com/hc/en-us/articles/115008258788-Office-365-to-Office-365-Migration-Guide-Wh...

 

Look at your inbox I will ping you my contact in case you need any technical help.

BitTitan might think they are the best tool on the market, and they can certainly move mailboxes around. However, Groups are not mailboxes. A group mailbox is an important part of a group, but there are other resources - SharePoint team site, plan, team, notebook, Power BI workspace, and so on that need to be moved along with the mailbox. I have seen no utility that is able to do this so far.

 

TR

Hi all.

 

Thanks for quick answers.

My scenario is this: migrating 100 inbox like javier@source.com to javier@target.com. Both ones, my office365 and the endpoint are office 365 online. I want I keep both email accounts.

I wanted to use the panel control admin, If I could.

Is free the tool you mentioned?.

 

Thanks again

Microsoft said (at Ignite 2017) that they will support tenant to tenant mailbox moves. In other words, you create a migration endpoint in one tenant that points to the other and can then schedule migration batches to move mailboxes from one to the other. This is what I think you want, but while Microsoft has said they will deliver this functionality, I have seen no formal announcement of its availability. This will be free; third party software is not.

 

However, when you move a mailbox, you do not keep it in the source tenant. Why would you want to keep it?

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Mats Warnolf (Brass Contributor)
Solution

Groups use special forms of mailboxes that not all migration tools even reveal let alone access... That is my warning.

 

Just as an example, try using the Get-Mailbox cmdlet to list group mailboxes. They don't exist. You have to use Get-UnifiedGroup. But you can feed a group mailbox id into Get-MailboxStatistics... So it's inconsistent, hence the warning.

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